1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a child resistant dispenser for pills or similar articles and more particularly for a portable dispenser which is both child resistant and convenient to the user. It involves the use of a telescoping cap member and elongated tubular body with orifices which are not aligned when the dispenser is closed and which requires relative horizontal movement and then telescoping or vertical movement to achieve alignment of the cap and the body orifices for dispensing.
2. Prior Art Statement
The use of dispensers with openings in a cap and a main body which must be aligned to achieve dispensing or with cap openings which telescope relative to main bodies of dispensers in order to open a dispensing orifice are well known. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,256,257 to Dukehart, issued in 1941 shows a basically tubular structure with a solid cap which has a first, closed position wherein a dispensing orifice is blocked off by the wall of the tube itself and a telescoping upward, second position whereby the orifice in the cap is opened to the top of the tube so as to permit dispensing. In 1944, U.S. Pat. No. 2,352,066 issued to Apfelbaum for a dispensing container which includes a tubular member and a cap with an orifice wherein the tubular member includes an orifice at its top and the cap member has an orifice which can only be aligned by horizontal rotation of the cap relative to the body.
In 1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,056 was issued to Kovac which describes an article dispenser with a reciprocating injector. A telescoping bottom/top arrangement permitted an opened and closed position for ejecting individual pills by pressing one side of the container so as to eject the pill out of a slot on the other side of the container. A pill dispenser patent was issued in 1973 to Glenn Kerr as U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,539. This patent describes a pill dispenser which has a plastic tube with a cap which has a spring biasing means and a twist and lock mechanism. The orifices in the tube and the cap are superimposed to dispense pills in a single twist and lock position and are separated so as to close off the orifices and retain the pills in a second position. Basically, a J type channel is used in conjunction with a protrusion so that there is a single resting position at the bottom tip of the J for a closed dispenser and a second position at the upper part of the beginning of the J for a dispensing position. This patent teaches the use of a spring so that if a child were to inadvertantly rotate the cap along the base of the J the spring would automatically open up the pill dispenser by virtue of automatic vertical alignment of the orifices in the cap and in the tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,365 describes a dispensing container which involves the use of two containers or receptacles, one within the other with each having an opening in its walls and arranged such that the openings are aligned by vertical movement of an outer and inner tube. In one embodiment, a childproof slip ring (FIG. 18) is included which requires alignment of the ring along with alignment of the two dispensing tubes to enable the user to actually dispense a pill.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,288 describes an article dispenser with tamper evident means and this patent describes rather complex mechanisms for indicating whether or not the container has been tampered with. The container itself typically involves the use of a tubular body and a cap with an orifice which, in its downward position, must be aligned with an opening in the tube to effect dispensing. There is no childproof aspect to the teachings but rather the tamper proof arrangement consitutes the apparent point of novelty.
Notwithstanding the above cited prior art, it is believed that there is no teaching which discloses or renders obvious the present invention involving the use of a horizontal track and a vertical track so as to require horizontal alignment of a cap with a tube for subsequent vertical movement of the cap relative to the tube to open or align orifices in the cap and tube for subsequent dispensing.